End of the Beginning?
Two men, Frank Phillips and T Floyd, have made an indelible mark on the American
working dog movement, have emerged as heroes in a time of stagnation and confusion.
Hero is of course a flagrantly over used and flamboyant word, and both will surely
deny it, but it is in this instance entirely appropriate, the word that works.
A hero is nothing more than one who reaches out to do an unexpected critical and
transformative deed at an inflection point, in circumstances with the potential
to galvanize the spirit of a people or community. Often this is said in the context
of a valiant warrior grasping flag and sword and leading a charge to change the
tide of battle and perhaps history. But most heroes do much more mundane things,
and that is what we have here.
T Floyd
Clk to enlarge
Frank Phillips and his German Shepherd Kliff vom Floyd Haus have made a strong and impressive showing in taking second place in the 2017 FCI IPO Championships in Rheine, Germany with an excellent score of 292, two points behind winner Yannick Kayser's Punk vom Further Moor, a Malinois from Germany. Although we don't call it Schutzhund any more, an important story in and of itself, this annual championship is without question the most prestigious all breed annual Schutzhund style competition, a gathering of the best from around the world.
Over the years a few — the name Zappia comes to mind — have won true honor on Euro fields; and others have purchased prominence by buying trained and titled dogs, motivated by the desire to stand on a podium, wave a tin cup and make money.
Phillips has set the bar higher because of who he is and what he has contributed, and also the circumstances of his performance in Rheine. For many years he has been a major contributor to the American working dog movement, serving as a prominent IPO judge, unselfish trainer and national leader.
Frank Phillips and Kliff
Photo Petra Fürstová
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But remarkable as all of this is, it is in reality only a prelude to the rest of the story. In my mind this is much more than another instance in an ongoing series of impressive American achievements on the Euro stage, because Kliff vom Floyd Haus is not a European bred dog purchased with a title and proven record and not even because he is owner trained and handled. This is a potential paradigm shift because Kliff is in the third generation of the ongoing American German Shepherd breeding program of T. Floyd, provides a shining example of what is possible, is a fulfillment of amateur idealism, of how we are supposed to be doing this.
Over the past several decades the prominent American championship contenders were predominantly trained and titled in Europe and then purchased, for increasingly impressive sums of money, by Americans with a commercial rather than an amateur interest. (Interestingly enough, this has been primarily a German Shepherd phenomena; truly competitive dogs in most of the other breeds have been impossible to find at any price, and the evolving American Malinois participation has to a much larger extent featured American bred and owner trained dogs.)
T. Floyd has emerged as a pioneer, shown a new way, in many ways broken new ground. Hopefully this trend will expand and prosper, and it will become so common for American bred dogs to represent us in international competition that the idea of actually buying a dog in Europe to take back to Europe for competition will seem strange and quaint.
For many years I have been saying that it is time for American working dog affairs to be conducted by and for Americans. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Floyd have taken us a major stride forward, made a resonating statement in support of this dream. Hopefully this will in years to come be looked back on as the end of the beginning, mark the emergence of a truly viable American working dog culture.
Jim Engel, Marengo, © Copyright September, 2017
Frank Phillips and Kliff vom Floyd Haus at the 2016 AWDF Championship
Clk to enlarge (Photo Brian Aghajani)
About the author: For more than thirty five years I have been engaged in working dog advocacy, journalism, training and politics. My wife was a prominent breeder of the Bouvier des Flandres, and although the first dog I trained was a German Shepherd, quite successful in the AKC obedience ring until cut down by parvo virus, my public persona, especially in the earlier years, has been of this breed. But I have always, from my childhood fascination and deepest roots, been an enthusiast, admirer and advocate for the German Shepherd dog. For these reasons, and at a time of conflict and peril for all of our working breeds, what is written here is for me among my most important opportunities to contribute; it gives me enormous satisfaction and renewed hope to show respect, to honor the achievements of these two men.